How to Chose Contrast and Exposure from the Test Strip
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2024
- Analog Photography - Basic Darkroom Technique.
A practical guide explaining how to choose exposure and contrast of the print using the test strip.
My photo workshops: www.corsifotoanalogica.it
The Italian Film Photography forum: www.analogica.it
My FB group: / 375397533101415
Instagram: @acromaticaofficial
In my opinion, the best and most well explained darkroom tutorial on YT. Thanks so much for sharing this info and I would love to see more!
+A Bakken. Thank you very much!
I agree! Grazie Andrea!!
I also agree, thanks a lot for sharing this tutorial!
That was so informative I hope you post more in the future so we can learn from your expertise
I second that, very nicely made video, clear explaination of the concepts, could we have some more please ? Books are good, to be shown is better. Thank you
Really helpful video. Thanks so much. Am starting out and have not yet worked out when I’d need to mess with contrast settings. Now I know!
By far this is the most straight forward video I have seen on how to choose exposure time and contrast! You must be a very good professor!
Thank you Philip.
I've been teaching since 1996. It is still something i love doing.
This is probably the best b&w print making tutorial on youtube. Clear, simple, informative and well presented. Thank you Andrea!
Thank you Dilbert !!
By far the best explanation of what to look for in contrast, and how to achieve the correct results I have ever seen.
Thank you Mark
What a Great Guide! Often you find videos where just some guy talks in front of the camera, not here! Realy helpful
That was quite possibly the best explanation and tutorial in making a test strip I've seen on TH-cam.
Thank you so much.
Can't wait to see the rest of your videos.
Excellent demonstration!
I appreciate your patient manner; it's the sign of a good teacher. Thank you.
The point at 10:30, about correct highlight in 1 exposure and the correct shadow in the other is the first objective description of picking correct/incorrect contrast I've seen on youtube, thankyou! (Obviously, it's still subjective, but adjusting contract filters makes a lot more sense to me now)!
This is amazing, I just built my darkroom and this is wonderful.
Any way you could help me out
@@Kaemaci what help do you need?
That's how you do it. I was thinking about it this week.
thanks a lot Mr Calabresi for sharing this method of finding the best contrast for a print. I've always struggled with contrast while printing. Really appreciate your kindness on sharing this.
Best wishes, Santiago
Thank you Santiago, I am very glad to have been useful.
Finally! A method that makes logical sense of a subjective art form
Thank you @mosephina, that was my aim.
Fantastic tutorial ! better than being in a class room !
In the past 12 months I have started shooting and developing my own film. I have recently purchased an enlarger to learn to make my own prints. Fantastic explanation, you are a great teacher. Thanks for taking the time to do this video.
Multi8991 I love analog photography. Sharing and keeping analog photography alive is a pleasure.
most would not bother to go through the 3 contrast attempts, but this video is fascinating as you explore the 'correct' contrast through trial and error. thank you!
As much as i simply love the technique, your amazing teaching skills and the result i can't help but thinking those test pieces were also amazing artworks.
I was taught very basic darkroom technique at highschool. This is how I've always done it. Your video has completely revolutionised my printing! Wow, thank you!
I studied with Ansel Adams and I can assure TH-cam readers that your printing demonstration is one of the very best I've ever seen here. Bravo. One comment I would make (basically agreeing with your method but with a slightly different approach): I make my test prints in three-to-five basic steps. The first step concentrates ONLY on using an important white area (the lightest white which shows detail) to determine an over exposure time (which be tweeked later). Instead of moving a card to expose the whole print for my test, I expose ONLY that same white part (and, at a low contrast, such as grade 1.5) to various times by sliding the PAPER past a slot cut into a card which covers it. In that way I can compare this important white section, side by side. From here I can derive a basic exposure time for the whole print. After that I make an overall print at the best looking time to see what that exposure time does to my important dark & shadow areas, whose density I can test and control in my third test print by estimating which contrast filter will best do the job. I can normally arrive at a good "first" print after
about five test prints (which, to save paper, needn't be whole sheets!)
Thanks again for your excellent demonstration.
+mefourb Thank you very much. An expert appreciating is, indeed a great compliment. :)
NB. A more technical answer is above.
So you make the first test without filter?
Yes, I do the same, I even narrow it to a smaller test strips with a special mask I created.
Wasting a whole pieces of paper sheet just for testing is not an option, at least not for me in these crazy times when paper is so expensive.
I am amazed how many people said it’s a great tutorial and I noticed no comment about paper wasted to do it.
Test strips are a waste of paper as they only show you the incorrect exposure in a small area of an image. They tell you very little about the whole image. The tonal strips he makes is not even in stops.
One exposure for the whole image (or use strips of paper covering from shadows to highlights) will show how many stops you need to change the exposure from shadows to highlights.
This is of course the primary function of The Zone System of exposure as formulated by Ansel Adam’s & Fred Archer in 1939 to 1940. Just apply those principles to your print. The rules are always the same. It’s why we talk in stops not time and aperture.
I understand this may be a shock.
I came to this realisation when I began teaching darkroom printing at the age of 47 after a lifetime of professional photography. I began teaching test strips as I was taught at college. I quickly realised that I don’t do that. I hadn’t made a test strip in decades.
So what do I do I asked myself? Simple, I know the grey scale.
I then got the students to make a set of small prints in stops from white to black of a whole negative and there is your reference for life. Soon you will just know.
No need to repeat the process every time you do a print.
This can then be transferred to knowing how much to dodge & burn when you reach the fine tones you require to make that beautiful silver print.
The technician said it would waist a lot of paper but on the contrary it saved a lot of paper and also taught the students the Zone System of exposure.
This is what I made in my darkroom……
www.hagsphotography.com
@@hagishag I agree, test strip are a waste of paper if.... you do not know how to use them.
Sir, you just gave a clinic! So you have more content on TH-cam on another channel. I'd love to see more.
I just made my first ever print from a Ferrania P30Alpha negative, thanks to this video. Grazie molto, Andrea!
Reading AA's The Print, you both evaluate correct contrast in the same way, but your way is a measurable, easy to follow method with a nice demonstration and explanation. Thanks very much.
Watching this gave me a whole new map in editting digital photos. Wow, thanks!
Shoot film next 😜😜
@@nickfanzo i am honestly considering it, but only for personal photos :D
@@geotsaou once you start, there’s no stopping it
I could not help but notice the cover on the book at his left elbow :-) Very good tutorial. Thanks.
Mr. Calabresi, thank you so much. Ultra professional. Grazie.
+Bill Leontaritis Thank you!
Thank you so much! Very helpful! It took me 5 times to get the correct contrast.
This is now my new test strip method! Thank you!
Congratulations. This is a great darkroom tutorial. Excellent in every detail, technical and not only,... including the tone of your voice. Really superb. Thanks
Thank you very much!
Thank you for the such a great instruction in master printing Andrea. I really look forward to you next tutorial.
Very useful insight about contrast control on printing. Thank you very much for your video. Looking forward to more videos like these. Regards from Greece!
Very interesting, I did learn something here. Thanks
Mr Calabresi, thank you so much for your dedication to your art, the outcome of which is this very informative gem of a video! And thank you for your kindness to share!
Best video on this topic. Thanks a lot. Greetings from Slovenia. I hope to meet you in person one day.
Thank you, I'm glad to be useful. :) We're not too far, it may well happen. :)
Thank you so much for sharing .
elegantly explained. Thank you.
Mr Calabresi, I thank you sir for this video. I hope to start printing some of my images this year.
An excellent tutorial, very helpful with regard to contrast. Thank you very much - I shall watch it again.
Yes the best printing tutorial I have seen. Love to see more tutorials from you.
very good explonation for beginners. especially the contrast development was helpful. thanks.
The lesson on contrast grade selection is strong in this video.
I would take a photography course with you, any time and any place. Thank you so much for sharing your magnificent stores of knowledge.
Thank you Sandra,
I teach courses every weekend in Bologna, you're wellcome. :)
Thank you - great video, you have cleared up many questions I have had about my printing.....
Thanks so much for making this video! It's a huge help to me! Thank you!
+Joey Pasco I am very pleased to have been helpful. Thank you!
Thank you very much, starting darkroom printing from medium format and this was the best video
Thank you Fred!
Glad you find it useful.
Grazie Mr. Calabresi!
+Matei Gruber Thank you for watching!
Thank for sharing. The best explanation which i have seen. Grazie
Great job... Thank you so much for sharing your know how
+Emanuele Altieri Thank you for watching.
Lovely !
Thanks!
Very good video! Thanks !
Glad you found it useful!
Thank you! Excellent video and I hope to see more.
WOW Great video !!!
Thank you Din!
Great explanation, thank you! Also a great picture
Amazing. Great video. Thank you.
Thank you Sir!!! This is an excellent tutorial for beginners like me!
Wonderful video. Thank you.
Thank you for a very informative video Andrea! I can't wait till my next day off so that I can go into the darkroom and put this new knowledge to use. :-)
Great explanation of contrast. Thank you
Pedro Rica Thank for watching!
Just learned something. I have been leaving my print in the developer until the time was up. He takes it out a few seconds before and then waits for the time to end. Will start doing that tonight.
very good video, thanks very much......cant wait too try your method next time printing....thanks
I never saw a contrast filter being inserted in the enlarger, you said there is s need to change contrast but not how did you do it, I'm so confused, thank you so much
Hello Brenda,
The main image adjustments in black and white printing are esposure (darker - brighter) and contrast (the relationship between darker and brighter tones). They are related and shall be adjusted at the same time and that is the difficult part. This video shows a method to make these adjustments.
While exposure is more intuitive, the more light you give the darker it becomes (it's a negative process) contrast is a much less intuitive thing. Maybe if you can imagine (figure in your mind) a picture where you like the midtones, but you would like to modify the darker and/or the brighter tones... that's exactly what changing the contrast does, it modifies the extremes of the tonal range, making them brighter or darker as you wish.
To modify the contrast on contemporary (so called) Multigrade photo papers you need to change the colour of the light. This change of colour of the printing light can be obtained in different ways, one consists of putting coloured filters in the light path and many enlargers (the projection devices) have a specific drawer where you can place these coloured filters.
Thanks for chiming in so quickly. I will say the split grade works very well for and a lot success in tough negs situations. Like bullet proof skies like we have here in New Mexico. I do float between technique simile it to yours in low contrast negs and the other. Thanks for posting. Your technique is another tool I can use in my darkroom tool chest.
+ToddB987 I know. That's exactly what I intended about non optimal negatives quality and use of split printing. Why don't you reduce film developing times instead of saving them while printing? The results will be dramatically different and the freedom in print interpretation will be saved.
The newest T-grain films can accomodate some 20 stops of dynamic range even on grade 2 if properly processed.
BTW, Which light spource are you using in your enlarger, condensor or diffuser?
Condensor on 120 and diffuser on 35mm. I usually develop film on recommend manufactures recommendations. For example using Delta 100 developed at 12.00 min at 68 degrees using D-76. I know less time reduces contrast and more time adds more. I usually shoot a lot of varing light situation on a single roll that's why I use manufacturers recommend times. I usually shoot a lot of black and white film with a orange filter on most everything.
+ToddB987 Hi, this time I am late...
Ilford developing times are generally producing negatives suitable for low contrast scenes to be printed with diffuser enlargers. So development times should be reduced (sometimes a lot) when printing with a condensor head, and/or shooting high contrast scenes. This is normal.
I warmly suggest you an experiment: do dev times "bracketing" combined with exposure bracketing. Make the same images on three rolls of film (if you have a MF camera with film backs it's easy), expose with bracketing and then process for 50% 75% and suggested developing time. Finally print it all.
Very helpful! Thank you!
This was a very informative and fun experience, i really enjoyed the way you explained everything. Thank you so much.
really good, thank you xxxxxx
Thank you very much for this great video, andrea!
Wow This turned on the light for me. It's really quite simple when someone explains it in simple terms. Thank You for this. I'd like to see you explain the change of enlarger f stops and the results obtained. Thank You again
+EFD620G Hi. Glad you appreciated.
Changing enlarger f-stop will affect exposure the usual way: closing one f-stop will require double the exposure. E.G. if the exposure is 12" @ f:8 it becomes 24" @ f:11. This follows the main exposure rule (reciprocity) wich says: E=txl - exposure= is time per light. Less light, more time and viceversa.
Lens performance is also affected, but with good lenses this is visible only on higher magnification (bigger prints). Generally speaking the intermediate f-stops will yeld the better lens performance. It is advisable not to use the lens wide open or fully closed.
For best performance every single lens shall be tested individually in a perfectly alligned system and at different magnifications. This requires equipment and expertise.
Brilliant! thanks for sharing your knowledge
Very insightful, thank you
woooooooohaa man, it is amazing to work and experiment with what we are made of:light.
Super helpful! Thank you so much
incredible, your clarity, simplicity of explanation and clear love for the subject are remarkable. So pleasant and instructive to see this. Thank you so much!
yes. would like to see more
:)
great video, its very informative. any plans to continue the series?
very informative and interesting!
that was incredible!
Yeah, pure magic. ;)
Great explanation!Tnx 4 share.
Beautiful.
Thank you for sharing! It's very very helpful
Simon Tay Thank you for watching!
Yo, no shit this vid bangs hard. Cool technique with the contrast homeboi, I heard some guy said if I wanted more contrast I had to stick the print in the freezer but this makes more sense.
Rotfl! Thak you GIZ!
Amazing tutorial bravo!
+DrPoolShark Thanks!
Excellentia!
Thank you Mr Andrea! This is perfect!
Glad you appreciated!
Thank you!
so helpful, thank you!!
Brilliant!!!!!
amazing tutorial, thank you for sharing.
Still the best explanation of darkroom situation on TH-cam.
Brilliant vid and information. Ive never thought about getting both highlights and shadows within the same time! I'm going to put this to the test this weekend :-)
Thank you for uploading this :-)
THank you for watching!
Let me know how it goes.
I will :-)
Again... Thank you
Complimenti Andrea Calabresi
Grazie!
+Andrea Calabresi . C'è anche la versione italiana.
excelent tutorial
This is gold mate. Thanks for sharing. Subded.
Thank you.
Please make more videos Andrea.
I am trying. I am working on the screenplays. :)
Great!! Looking forward for that. Ciao!
With this technique, I now find I am lowering contrast where before I would have increased it - and vice-versa. It has changed the look of my prints. It does get more difficult as you get closer to your objective. Judging the highlights and shadows becomes more subtle and difficult. I guess this is where experience comes into play.
+Igaluit Ahhahah! Really funny!
Contrast as "understood" by photo paper and human mind may well be different. ;-)
Anyway, just to check, my technique helps to determine both contrast and exposure from the test strip.
There are three possible situation.
1 - the contrast is too low when the highlight details need less exposure than the shadows.
2 - the contrast is too high when the highlight details need more exposure than the shadows.
3 - the contrast is correct when both highlights and shadows need the same exposure time.
+Andrea Calabresi Thank-you. This clarifies things further. I'll have to faithfully transcribe those rules onto vellum. Another difficulty is judging just how far to take this when some highlights and some shadows can only be tamed by dodging and burning. I guess this is why good darkroom printers are worth their weight in gold (by today's gold prices).
+Igaluit We have become a rare breed, unfortunately. But resistance is NOT futile! :-)
Technically speaking any decently processed negative can be printed without dodging and burning simply selecting the proper contrast.
Assuming you adjust exposure for the shadow if the highlights are still too bright on grade 00 this means that the negatives are extremely overdeveloped. Ideally negatives shall be printable without dodging or burning on grade 2 or close (medium contrast), ideally. But to obtain this result film development time shall be precisely adjusted on the contrast of the scene and this is not always possible and requires a lot of testing anyway.
Nevertheless it is possible to adjust film development time in order to have the greatest part of the negatives printed easily on the medium grades (1-3).
Non technically speaking i consider and use dodging and burning as interpretation tools rather than fixing tools.
I now aim for this grade 2 ideal. I noticed you commented on someone else's post that one should double the exposure aand develop 25-50% less. I've been doubling exposures for a little while now, but with HP5 at even 15% less development, I find I'm cranking up the magenta to 30 just to get a good print. Surely, something must be lost in the tonal range when one does that? I yearn for those old films of the 30s and 40s; I love the look of them. But, if you notice, when Doisneau switched to a Nikon and worked with modern films, the shadows and highlights in his new photos seem to be perpetually at war with one another without resolution. The earlier pictures semed harmonious overall.
You are certainly working hard to keep this art alive, for which we are all grateful. There is hope, especially as the younger generations begin to find they've reached the limits of what digital photography can do for them.
I hasten to add: I said that my test print "needn't be whole sheets". Of course, I'm only referring to the first and second test strips I do for judging exposure time, and then, contrast. The prints to see the effects of these judgements are of course full sheets.
+mefourb Very interesting comment. In my opinion the procedure you suggest here is better suited to expert darkroon user and fits graded paper better than multi-grades. I aimed to give an operating method to less experienced users that was both universal (any paper, any enlarger) and technically valid.
For your procedure to work properly we need to assume that the bright tone we need will not change when we change contrast and more important that that tone is the same we targeted. This more likely happens with graded paper (more likely because not necessarily our targeted tone is the one that remains the same on a certain paper-developer combo). When using MG papers the tone that doesn't change when changing contrast doesn't really exist (color head), or isn't necessary a bright enough tone (condensor with filters) if there is at all. Hence the necessity to always evaluate highlight and shadows at the same time (on one big test strip, as suggested in the video) or to run more strips if we use your method.
Dear Andrea,
Of course, you are absolutely correct, for the most part. It's true, as you have said, that the method I suggested (and the concise and rather quick way I described it) doesn't reveal that -yes- you would have to adjust a little for the slight exposure change necessitated by the contrast change found in the second test phase.
I look forward to someday meeting you, if you happen to be in Paris, to show you and discuss -in my darkroom- how this can and does work with multigrade paper . . . and, afterwards, to share a glass of wine!
+Chris Nisperos I won't miss a glass in Paris. ;-)
TO:Andrea Calabresi... I have sent you a private message with my personal email address so that you indeed won't miss that glass of wine in Paris! By the way, beautiful website.
Big thank you Andrea, very well explained and the perfect beginners guide to darkroom printing. I have developed and scanned my own film for a few years so I think this will be the next stage :) Thanks again! Matt (MrLeica.com)
+mosbornephotography Thank you for watching, Matt. :)
Ah... so the color head makes life so much easier it seems.
Just a bit. You don't have to put filters in and out, but you have to turn the knobs.
You can also use the color settings as a density type filter to lengthen exposure times.
Thank you Andrea Calabresi for this excellent tutorial. May I ask, what is the purpose of having a variable aperture on an enlarger? I understand on a camera it is for controlling depth of field.
+Enwogamwirion Hi.
There is more than one reason: being able to have a confortable exposure time; the need of a little depth of field to compensate for the field curvature (it is impossible that the field is totally flat); lens peerformance it is generally better at certain f-stops. You need the possibility to open the lens wide to have ease of focus, to close it down on small enlargements and to use the best f-stop or closest possible if field curvature doesn't allow for critical work on bigger enlargments.
Andrea Calabresi Thank you! You are are a maestro!
How about dry down effect? Test strips schould be evaluated when dry, not wet.
Dry down happens only if the viewing light is not correct.
If the light to view the wet prints is correct the dry down doesn't happen.
Can you imagine running a hi-end custom print lab losing time in drying test prints or strips?
I've planned a video on that as well, stay tuned!
@@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint Thank you. I guess you are referring to the too strong/bright light. I`m looking forward to watch your video. I dont know how pro labs are working.
@@andrzejwiderkiewicz5404 The viewinhg light shall be not very powerful and directional. A 20w spotlight on an adjustable lamp, for example.
Make a print rich of both bright and dark tones. Once dried cut it in two pieces, re-wet one of the parts, adjust light direction until the wet and the dried parts look the same.
It is easier than you imagine.
Thank you!
Thanks,very clear tutorial,could you make some video on dodging and burning.
Mariusz Leoniuk Hi, glad it was useful.
I will think of making it.
grazie mille, this is very interesting. but are you saying that burning and dodging is not needed with this method?
No, I am not.
I am giving you a guide in order to do burning and dodging afterwards and do it for interpretation and not to fix problems generated from a wrong contrast choice. :)
A common mistake is to look at the test strip in search of the the exposure that gives correct mid-tones, then, if the contrast was wrong, dodging and burning becomes necessary to fix that original mistake.
This is a very helpful video - One question: How do you determine what your base times for each contrast are? I am referring to that moment on each test strip right before you begin sliding the card. I noticed you had a different base time for each contrast test strip and I imagine that you must have some formula in your head that you refer to? Thanks! Also is there a place in which you have published more in depth information on your method? I would love to continue learning in this style. I have been using the f-stop method for about a year but I like how much faster this style is.
Hello Aaron,
There is no exact formula, unluckily. If it existed there would not be the need of running a test strip every time you change the contrast. Anyway using a colour head there will be an increase of exposure every time the filters are set to a higher value.
I did not write much. I plan to make more videos, but my schedule is quite busy, so it will take time.
But I regularly teach seminars on darkroom technique in Bologna, Italy (the english website is on the way).
You can also check the printing workshop of Jim Megargee in NYC and in Maine. He will teach something very similar. He was my mentor long ago. :)